ABSTRACT
The Austrian penal reform of 1975 offered the legal basis for the opening of the Justizanstalt Göllersdorf, an institution for the inpatient-treatment of mentally ill offenders in 1985. After a short survey about comparable institutions in other countries the paper explains the structural and hierarchical principles and the problems of distributions of competences, the latter caused by the doubtful position between psychiatric hospital and prison. The therapeutical strategies and the diagnoses, delicts, and diagnosis/delict constellations of 178 patients treated between January 1985 and July 1st 1987 are presented. Despite difficult structural and external conditions the Justizanstalt Göllersdorf is able to refer to a number of successes. New legal conditions coming into force since March 1st 1988 could support the development of the Justizanstalt Göllersdorf as a primarily therapeutic institution.
